Valley gets a soaking, mountains a coating

Mary Manning and Ed Koch

Friday, Dec. 12, 2003 | 11:12 a.m.

Two weeks before Christmas, and all over the Las Vegas Valley snow and rain pelted residents and visitors Thursday.

Some areas west of town got some snow, but the white stuff didn't stick in most areas of the city.

It did accumulate in the Spring Mountains, however, and valley residents were treated early this morning to the view of a few snow-covered peaks to their west.

Thursday's storm settled over the Las Vegas Valley in a weather pattern that officials said resembled a spinning top. It dropped 0.36 of an inch of rain at the official National Weather Service station at McCarran International Airport. That was the most rain ever recorded in Las Vegas for that day of the year, eclipsing the old mark of 0.09 set in 1984.

The rainfall brought the year-to-date total to 6.26 inches, 2.06 inches above normal, said Barry Pierce, a weather service meteorologist.

Six inches of snow fell on Mount Charleston according to a measuring device at the fire station, the weather service said.

"It was a pretty impressive upper-low (pressure) system that formed a deformation access," Pierce said of the storm, which slid into the valley from western Nevada and today was in south-central Arizona.

A deformation access is a closed system in which a storm circulates -- Thursday it was in a counterclockwise motion -- and lingers over a specific area.

"We were right in the heavy portion," Pierce said. "Sixty miles north of us, Indian Springs got nothing compared to what we got."

Pierce said a storm system heading into the valley late Sunday afternoon is expected to be an open system, where the winds sweep through the area. That system carries a 20 percent chance of rain and predictions of snow above elevations of 5,000 feet.

Increasingly cloudy skies with highs in the 50s are expected for today and Saturday, Pierce said.

Dozens of traffic accidents, most of them fender-benders, snarled traffic in Las Vegas during Thursday's storm, said Trooper Angie Wolff, a Nevada Highway Patrol spokeswoman.

"We got about double the usual number of accidents because of the slick road conditions," Wolff said, noting that between 1:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., there were 56 accidents. On a normal day during that period, there are between 25 and 30 accidents, she said.

A tractor-trailer jackknifed on Interstate 15 at 2 p.m., causing a traffic snarl, Wolff said.

Seven minutes later, a Highway Patrol trooper from Pahrump, who had come to town to assist with the weather-related traffic problems, lost control of his vehicle, spun and hit a wall on I-15 at Spring Mountain Road, Wolff said. She said he was not injured.

Shortly after noon a vehicle rolled over on I-15 near Sahara Avenue, and a tour bus skidded off the road on I-15 near Flamingo Road. No one was seriously hurt in either of those crashes.

Red Rock Canyon visitors were shooed away from the Scenic Loop Drive about 3 p.m. by the Bureau of Land Management after almost 2 inches of snow fell on the road, and ice turned roads slick in the canyon, BLM spokesman Phil Guerrero said.

Because of those icy conditions, the loop remained closed as of early today. The public should call the Red Rock Visitors Center at 515-5350 to check when the road will re-open.

The U.S. Forest Service issued a warning to winter visitors to Mount Charleston: Dress warmly and be prepared to use chains or snow tires on the roads.

Mount Charleston travelers are urged to carry tire chains, a shovel, drinking water and basic tools at all times, Forest Service spokeswoman Victoria Shaffer said. There is no gas and there are no mechanics in the area.

The main route between Las Vegas and Pahrump, State Route 160, was closed to regular traffic because of snow for a couple of hours Thursday, but four-wheel-drive vehicles with snow tires and chains were allowed access, Wolff said.

Route 160 was opened after dark, and there are no restrictions on the road today. Also, State Route 159 was closed for about 30 minutes Thursday to determine if it was safe for use, Wolff said.

The storm plunged down California's coast and then swirled into Southern Nevada shortly after noon on Thursday, Weather Service forecaster Donald Maker said. The storm system is now moving east, where it could produce snow in Texas and Oklahoma over the weekend, he said.

Thursday's rain didn't put a dent in the ongoing drought in the Southern Nevada region, however.

"It's like a drop in a very large bucket," Maker said.

The storm wasn't a direct cause of several power outages in the valley Thursday, a utility spokeswoman said. Several hundred Nevada Power Company customers were in the dark Thursday.

Along a one-mile stretch of Cheyenne Avenue between U.S. 95 and Buffalo Drive the power was knocked out to gas stations and convenience stores.

A one-hour outage was reported for 500 customers near Stephanie Drive and south of Tropicana Avenue after a flatbed truck on Stephanie knocked down a power line, Nevada Power spokeswoman Sonya Headen said. Power was restored about 6 p.m. after lasting for more than an hour.

Another 750 customers, most of them businesses in the downtown Las Vegas area, were left in the dark for about 45 minutes late Thursday, Headen said. That was caused by transformer failures.

And blown fuses left 50 residential customers without power in the area of Craig at Pecos roads from 3:30 p.m. into the night, Headen said.